Scene: Waiting room of a walk-in medical clinic. It’s been five minutes since the main characters - a mother and her 6 year old daughter - arrived. Several other really sick people are also waiting and they got in earlier.

The mother didn’t come prepared for a long wait. She’s reluctantly reading an old, germy issue of People magazine, trying to enjoy red carpet fashions and decide who looked better in the same dress while attempting to avoid contact with the invisible human debris that is lurking on the pages just waiting to infect her.

The daughter is becoming restless with boredom. The mother searches her coat pockets for a cell phone which miraculously a) she has with her and b) isn’t dead. The mother offers the phone to the daughter who is excited to have something fun to play with instead of the Fisher Price house that’s seen better days. After a few minutes of playing a game on the cell phone…

Daughter: Mummy. Mummy. MUmmy.

Mother: Yes?

Daughter: Can I play with the calculator?

Mother: What calculator?

Daughter: The one on your phone.

Mother: There’s a calculator on my phone?

Daughter: Yes, right here. See?

Mother: (A little surprised, she smiles and gently shaking her head as she admires her daughter’s intelligence.) Hmm. Whatta ya know. Sure.

A few minutes of calculating go by.

Daughter: Mummy. Mummy. MUmmy.

Mother: Mhmmm?

Daughter: Can I use the camera?

Mother: What camera?

Daughter: The one on your phone.

Mother: There’s a camera on my phone?

Daughter: Yes, right here. See?

Mother: (A little more surprised and slightly concerned at how much more her daughter knows about her phone than she does, she furrows her eyebrows.) Uh. Ok.

Several photos later …

Daughter: Mummy. Mummy. MUmmy.

Mother: What is it, Honey?

Daughter: Can I video you?

Mother: You can record video with my phone?

Daughter: Yes, like this. See?

Mother: (Suddenly looks terrified as she realizes she doesn’t even have a ticket for the technology transport that’s leaving the station with her daughter at the helm.)

* * * * *

This story is intended to illustrate my occasional technical ineptitude. And to help explain that if you tried to subscribe to my blog last week (probably most if not all of you are my closest & dearest friends because I emailed you and begged you to), it wasn’t set up properly. Sorry ‘bout that. But it’s working now (see column on right), if you want to try again.

Between you and me, it’s a miracle I even have this blog. And I did it all by myself. Well, except for the several dozen emails to/from the Technical Support Dept, but they just sent me links to videos on how to fix my setup issues … and kindly reassured me a few times that I didn’t need to cry.